Ghana Health Service Systems Go Offline After Cloud Provider Shuts Down 10 Servers

• The Ghana Health Service suspended access to its electronic health systems nationwide after its cloud hosting provider shut down all 10 servers
• Critical platforms, including DHIMS2, the national health data reporting tool, went offline, disrupting data entry and reporting across health facilities
• The GHS is seeking approval to pay US$64,510.95 to restore services, while facilities have been told to revert to paper-based records

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The Ghana Health Service has taken its electronic health information systems offline across the country after its cloud hosting provider, Akamai, deactivated all 10 servers linked to its account over unresolved administrative matters.

The disruption began on 29 October 2026, and an internal memo issued on 2 November by GHS Director-General Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea confirmed the extent of the shutdown to regional and divisional directors.

The list of affected platforms is extensive. DHIMS2, the national health information reporting system, is fully unavailable for data entry, validation, analysis and report extraction. The Planning and Budget Management Information System, used to access plans and budgets, has also gone dark.

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Additional platforms out of service include eTracker, the Family Planning and Health Care platform, the Operational Training and Supervision Support assessments tool and the Non-Communicable Disease tracker, though their Android applications can still be used offline. The HIV and tuberculosis trackers and the ISRS sample tracker have similarly lost web access and laboratory integration, with offline Android functionality remaining available.

The National Malaria Data Repository, the inpatient morbidity and mortality events system, SMS alerts, the transport system and the Community Health Information Management portal are all affected. Critically, the data-exchange gateway responsible for transmitting birth notifications to the National Identification Authority and the Births and Deaths Registry has also been disrupted.

Dr Akoriyea sought to reassure health officials that no data had been compromised. "There has been no security breach, and no data has been lost. Nightly encrypted backups of every system are held outside the suspended account and are current to 29th October 2026," he stated in the memo.

GHS Weighs Options to Restore Access

Health facilities have been directed to revert to paper-based reporting in the meantime, completing registers and monthly summary forms manually so that October and November data can be entered into DHIMS2 once the systems come back online.

Two paths to restoring services have been outlined. The faster route involves settling the outstanding balance with Akamai to reinstate the existing account, restoring all systems without requiring them to be rebuilt.

The alternative is to procure new servers and reconstruct the systems from existing backups, a process that could take up to six weeks from the point that new capacity is secured.

The GHS is pursuing the first option, with Dr Akoriyea indicating the Service is finalising arrangements with Akamai and seeking ministerial approval for a payment of US$64,510.95. He appealed directly to the sector minister to help fast-track that approval.

Once services are restored, the Director-General said the GHS would plan a structured migration to a Ghana-based hosting provider, to include a parallel run and a funded backup arrangement, to prevent a recurrence of the situation.

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Source: YEN.com.gh